All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well

Here's to never giving up! (Reply)

The last few days have been eventful and productive, media-wise. I went to see the Welcome to Night Vale live show "Ghost Stories" on Friday night in LA, and it was great. The weather guest was Erin McKeown, who provided the weather for the most recent episode of the podcast. She played that song ("The Queer Gospel") as well as several others. I decided that I really like her music. She has a good voice, but what I really appreciate is the lyrics of her songs. Just that night, she played songs about LGBTQ self-love and acceptance, immigration, and the beauty and wonder of living the creative life.

The show itself... I was delighted to have Will Wheaton as a guest that evening, but I was kind of expecting it since we were in LA this time around. Earl is one of my favorite characters, and his ghost story was amusing. I was sad that Carlos wasn't there, though. Cecil did a great job as always, and I loved the backstory that the show provided. We finally get to know what happened to Cecil and Abby's mother. Much about Cecil's life is still a mystery, but we got more information about his family situation. Apparently, his sister had to drop out of college to raise Cecil on her own. There's a lot of great fanfic potential in this.

On Saturday, I watched the first few episodes of Stranger Things on Netflix. I'm on episode six, and it's really great so far. I wasn't even alive in the majority of the 80s, but it really hits the nostalgia spot. I also watched the Fellowship of the Rings movie for the first time ever and fell in love with it. It was very well done, and it made me fall in love with the story all over again. It's kind of a shame that I didn't see these movies when they originally came out, but I'm trying desperately not to be pop culture illiterate anymore.

Speaking of which, I also watched Moulin Rouge for the first time ever this weekend. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't so convinced by the insta-love. I didn't really connect to the characters as much as I thought I should. On the other hand, I just loved the fact that Kylie Minogue and Placido Domingo were the fairy and the man in the moon respectively. Watching it reminded me a lot of Phantom of the Opera, and I suppose that both musicals have a lot of crossover appeal. I guess that it's partially that same operatic form of storytelling as Moulin Rouge has elements of La Boheme, La Traviata, and Orpheus in the Underworld. Aside from the fact that they both take place in France, they both involve creative types putting on a show and a musical within a musical. One of the characters unexpectedly takes the place of another on stage a la "The Point of No Return." Plus, both musicals begin in the future when all the action is over and done with and tell the story in flashback. Come to think of it, I bet they have a lot in common if I were to sit down and think about it some more.

So, in short, I became less pop culture illiterate this weekend. It's nice not living under a rock for a change.

I also watched Toonami on Satruday evening. I love how it has become a fixture of my week again. Not since the days of Yu Yu Hakusho have I been so eager to catch every episode. I think it'f fitting that Hunter x Hunter is the main reason why since they were both created by Yoshihiro Togashi. I've meant to check out Hunter x Hunter for years, but it's on Toonami now and all of those teenage feelings are coming flooding back. The team dynamics remind me a lot of those from the main cast of YYH. Kurapika is my obvious favorite, and I'm getting all kinds of Kurama flashbacks from him. My second favorite is probably Leorio, but they all have their own charm. Somone once said that if you liked the puzzle-like parts of the Maze Castle arc in YYH, you would also want to check out Hunter x Hunter. I will say that the Hunter Exams are definitely giving me a distinct Maze Castle type vibe.

That pretty much covers everything except my reading and writing habits, but that can wait for another time. I also got a new mattress on Saturday, so that's something too.